The Mogden Isolation Hospital was officially
opened in July 1898 by the Duke of Cambridge. It had been
established by the Boroughs of Richmond (Surrey) and Heston &
Isleworth Urban District Joint Isolation Hospital Committee for the
treatment and care of patients with scarlet fever, diphtheria, enteric
fever, measles and other infectious diseases. It partially
replaced the Dockwell Isolation Hospital
in Cranford (in the parish of Heston), which was retained as a smallpox
hospital.

The Hospital consisted of four separate
single-storey blocks, each containing a ward. Two of these, each
with 24 beds in cubicles, were in a horseshoe-form facing south, while
the other two blocks were straight - one with cubicles and one an open
ward. The main kitchen was enormous and could cater for 1,000
people. The Nurses' Home was large and magnificent, but lacked
homeliness.

In 1935 the Joint Isolation Hospital
Committee ceased to exist and the South Middlesex and Richmond Joint
Hospital Board took over control of the Mogden, Twickenham and Hampton Isolation Hospitals. All
acute cases were sent to Mogden.

In 1938 an administration block and a
laboratory were built and the wards were modernised. The Hospital
was renamed the South Middlesex Fever Hospital.

In 1939, at the outbreak of WW2, the large
pavilion wards were taken over by the Emergency
Medical Service
(EMS). Extra beds were provided by the Ministry of Health, so
that the Hospital had 227 beds available for the anticipated
casualties; 96 beds in the cubicle wards remained available for
infectious patients. Resident medical staff were seconded from St George's Hospital and the West London Hospital. Extra nurses,
clerical and domestic staff were transferred from the Westminster
and other London hospitals. The Hospital was renamed the South
Middlesex EMS Hospital for the duration of the war. In October 1940
some 26 beds were set aside for gynaecological patients from the Chelsea Hospital for Women requiring
surgery. This work expanded during 1941 and, in 1942, 302
gynaecological cases were treated.

In 1947, following epidemics of measles and
polio, there was a substantial increase in admissions, including
patients from Acton.

The Hospital joined the NHS in 1948, under
the control of the South West Middlesex Group Hospital Management
Committee, part of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.
It was renamed the South Middlesex Hospital, dealing with acute
and infectious diseases.

In 1952 the wards were redecorated
internally in a peach, cream and grey colour scheme. The ward
furniture was was renovated and repainted in contrasting colours of
blue, green and pink. Glazed sashes replaced the corrugated iron
sheeting along the corridors linking the wards. Swing doors to
wards were installed, and the operating theatre and the side wards were
also redecorated. However, due to the difficulty in attracting
qualified nursing staff, nursing orderlies were employed instead.

By 1953 the Hospital had 144 beds, of which
only 83 were in use because of the shortage of nursing staff. One
ward was closed, while two cubicle wards were reserved for fever
patients. The fourth (open) ward with 24 beds was the surgical
ward used by
Mr. Robert
Galloway, Medical Director of the West Middlesex
Hospital. The operating theatre adjoined one of the horseshoe
wards.

In 1955 one of the smaller buildings was
converted into an Ophthalmic Department, with its own operating
theatre. It became the Regional Eye Unit.

In 1960, when improvement works began at the
Queen Mary Maternity Wing at the West Middlesex Hospital, the maternity
patients took over the gynaecological wards, while the gynaecological
patients were transferred to Ward 6 (12 beds) and Ward 7 (30 beds) at
the South Middlesex Hospital site. The patients returned to the
H1 ward at the West Middlesex Hospital on 24th July 1960, but the other
two gynaecological wards (H2 and G2) remained closed.

By 1973 the Hospital was treating mainly
acute patients. In 1974, following a major reorganisation of the
NHS, it was transferred to the control of the Hounslow Health District
of the Ealing, Hammersmith and Houslow Area Health Authority, part of
the North West Thames Regional Health Authority.

In 1982 the Hospital came under the control
of the Hounslow and Spelthorne Health Authority. In 1983 it had
102 beds and had become a psychogeriatric hospital, although some beds
were still reserved for infectious disease patients.

It closed in 1991 with 72 beds.

Present status
(March 2008)

The site was sold for £12m,
which the government had promised to use for the redevelopment of the
West Middlesex Hospital. In the event, a shortfall of funds for
the buildings of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital required the
money to be used for that project instead.

The Hospital was demolished and the
site redeveloped. It now contains 284 residental units, a petrol
station and a supermarket with parking for 685 vehicles.

The north part of the site is occupied
by a Tesco superstore and its car park.

The
south side contains pleasant housing (left). The only health
activity is an ambulance station on the east side of the site
(right).

Also in the History Garden is the commemorative stone to the extension
of the Hospital, laid by the Mayor of Richmond on 8th October 1927.

MogdenMogden was the old name for
part of south Isleworth.

In 1936 a large sewage treatment plant was built for the West Middlesex
drainage district on Mogden Farm. It replaced 28 small sewage
works in north and west London. Covering 120 acres of land, the Mogden
Sewage Treatment Works
has become of the largest sewage treatment plants in southeast England
and now treats the effluent of about 1.8 million people.
Residents have complained for many years about the smell
sometimes emanating from the Works, which is known locally as the Mogden Pong.

The area is rarely called Mogden now, perhaps because of its
association with the Works. It is known as Ivybridge.